Build Thread CJ5 Hardtop budget build. (converted CJ7 hard top)

[rr41mag]

It seems to me that once you cut down 7 doors that you won't be able to roll the windows down. So what! I want to see it done myself

 

[mtnwhlr]

It seems to me that once you cut down 7 doors that you won't be able to roll the windows down. So what! I want to see it done myself

You should be able to roll them half way down maybe

 

[DiggerDirect]

I wanted to thank all you guys for the encouragement and ideas! elwood blues, that marine window link got me to thinking! and 81CJ5baller, the idea about making zip in windows is excellent!, both under serious consideration, Thankyou.

Al

 

[DiggerDirect]

A fairly productive day yesterday, amazing how a dash of cold weather with the promise of more will get a fella motivated! Heres what I've got done so far, hope to have them (dare I say it?) done and on by this evening!

Laying out the door was probably the hardest, atleast the most time consuming. I only had the one piece of plywood, and the nearest piece if I screw this one up is a 22 mile one way trip so the old 'measure twice, cut once' was taken to a new level.

I got lucky when the hard top fit the first time, lady luck was smiling and the door fit as well!

This same piece fit pretty well on the drivers side also, so I traced it out on the remaining plywood and set it aside for now.

Took the router and rounded over the edges inside and out.

Scavenged the hinges off the old wrangler doors, marked their location, then made a backing plate from scrap plywood glued and screwed to inside of door, drilled and bolted the hinges on. Took abit of tweaking here to get them lined up proper but not bad.

For some reason I had figured by using 1/2 inch plywood it would bend in at the top to follow the contour of the windshield frame, this was not the case, the toe in on my doors needed to be 2 1/8 inches in the front and 1 3/4 inches in the rear to make contact with the hardtop door lip.

Not to much of a problem but I should have forseen it before attaching the hinges and backing plate, would've been an easier cut. I took the power saw and made two kerf cuts 3/8 inch deep leaving a layer of the plywood, this acts as sort of a hinge.

Putting the door back on I think this will work. Now I'll bring the drivers side door up to this point, (and make the kerf cuts before attaching the hinges!)

Laying out the windows, I needed to leave enough 'meat' for a strong window frame while at the same time not giving it that porthole in the side of a wall look. (Looking forward I also wanted to leave enough to work with when I install the 'functioning' windows I have yet to figure)

Putting it on I figure I can live with it.

Took the router and rounded over the outside edge of the window openings

Then on the inside using the router made a simple 1/4" rabbit for the window to fit in.

Now for the toe in at the top, being the highly technical person (Not!) I put a temporary drywall screw in each corner, put the doors on the jeep, and from the inside used wire to pull the tops in snug then wrapped the wires tight to the bottom screws.

Then layed them out belly up

Cut fiberglass mat and cloth pieces to reinforce the kerf cuts and maintain the correct angles from the inside.

Allowed these to cure, then removed the wires and screws, cleaned up all the overlap on the edges and flipped them over. (The angle grinder works great on the cured fiberglass to rough it in, then sand it smooth)

TIP- Try to keep as much resin out of the window rabbit groove as possible, its a pain to get that stuff out after its cured!

Cut a strip of mat to go over the outside of the kerf cuts, and glasscloth strips for the window frame and rest of door exterior.

Then resined them up.

Thats where I left off last night, they should be cured today. Back at it...,

Al

 

[thiswontbetooexpensive]

That song by John Conlee, "The Carpenter" was playing in my head while reading that post.

VERY nice work!


This won't be too expensive Dear! That's what I keep saying. Over and over again.

 

[rr41mag]

This is so damn neat! I love this thread! I wish I lived closer to you so I caould come over and watch and drink a beer (or twelve) I did 27 years in aaircraft fabrication so I deal mostly with metal. Keep up the good work. It inspires me to start dreaming about the new bumpers I want to build.

Once again nice work!!!

 

[tinhorn]

Impressive work!

(May I suggest that you encapsulate the plywood completely with 'glass.)

 

[rr41mag]

I'm thinking of a bumper and rocker design.

 

[GatorBate]

Nice

 

[DiggerDirect]

Impressive work!

(May I suggest that you encapsulate the plywood completely with 'glass.)

Hi tinhorn, I completely agree with you, the plywood is just a core and moisture is the enemy. While more than likely moisture (=rot) will eventually find its way to the wood. They will certainly need some maintenance (ie: re-glassing and re-painting any exposed wood from wear, ect.) I figure I can beef up the existing fiberglass door shells to be self supporting at some point if needed, and am thinking of a double walled design when I redo the windows.

 

[DiggerDirect]

Well, its been a few days, cold days, and as usual I got sidetracked but finally got back to my doors.

After sanding down the exteriors, recoating and finish sanding I checked the fit, they needed alittle tweaking at the upper hinge and front top corners.

After the fit was satisfactory I started on the windows. As mentioned earlier I decided to make a solid window for now to get her buttoned up until such time as I come up with a plan for windows that open, so figured to keep the interior as simple as possible making the future tear down less of a hassle.

I cut some plywood scraps into molding to hold the plexiglass panels in the rabbit grooves. Siliconed a bead, set in plexiglass, another bead then screwed the molding on.

Then the interior got an overall coat of resin and cloth where it needed it. (I just resined the window molding to make it easier to remove later on)

Put pieces of cloth reinforcing on the joints of the molding,

After this cured it was all sanded down, recoated and finished sanded.

Then the windows taped up for paint, and painted the insides.

Flipped them over, taped windows and painted the outsides,

To keep my green/black thing going I touched up the hinges with flat black,

I installed simple grab handles from the wrangler doors to the insides, bolted through from the outside for strength. I used the handles from my soft doors which needed alittle 'tweaking' (alot of stuff needed 'tweaking' on this project!) but they came out great and work fine!

And at long last some neoprene weather seal around the edges and she is on!

This is what greeted me this 11 degree morning!

Last night took her on her maiden voyage it was super sweet, didnt need the carharts, and it was so quiet I heard noises I've not heard before, lol.

All told I've got a hair over 200 buckaroos into it, but I had the top. Time wise I have around 20 hours into the top and 15 hours into the doors, but that total is somewhat misleading as alot of time was spent contemplating, figuring, drinking beer, taking pictures, drinking beer, and more than alittle daydreaming.

The doors are certainly the toughest part, and these are far from perfect, but I gained alot of experience building them which will be applied to re-vamping them (or making a new set!) this spring when the weather warms up. I plan to take my soft door frames and cut them down to half doors, cover them with a skin and cut up the old soft top into one of them 'bikini' tops that go over the roll bar and tie down to footman loops in the rear, (but thats a future thread!) I need to make a ladder/canoe rack for the top yet and finish off the interior as well as install rear hatch supports, but otherwise it is now Miller time!

Thanks to all who posted, hope you enjoyed this thread it is my first attempt at doing one I've always wanted to. Will update when I rebuild my doors.

Al
a/k/a DiggerDirect

 

[GatorBate]

:rock: Great job, looks great!!

 

[Petescj]

That really looks good. Nice job and thanks for sharing.

 

[Kilo19]

your build has caused me to want to build my own top and doors, only because the roll cage is gonna be custom, and i don't think im gonna be able to find a top that i want...with that said, what size plywood did you use, i have access to 1/4 and 1/2 but did you do anything special to water proof, or would the fiberglass do a good enough job, also any idea on how you mount things on fiberglass?

oh,

GREAT BUILD THREAD

 

[elwood blues]

Great build thread, I am amazed buy your ingenuity and fabrication skills I will be looking forward to your next projects.

 

[72rtchallenger]

very nice work

 

[DiggerDirect]

your build has caused me to want to build my own top and doors, only because the roll cage is gonna be custom, and i don't think im gonna be able to find a top that i want...with that said, what size plywood did you use, i have access to 1/4 and 1/2 but did you do anything special to water proof, or would the fiberglass do a good enough job, also any idea on how you mount things on fiberglass?

oh,

GREAT BUILD THREAD

Hi Kilo19, I used 1/2 inch exterior plywood, B/C grade (which basically means sanded slightly with no voids showing such as found on CDX sheathing grade).
There is a marine grade plywood that is treated similar to pressure treated lumber but I was not sure of the adhesion qualities with the resin. Regular wood soaks up some of the resin into the outer layers, more or less becomes one after its cured. Polyester or epoxy are both waterproof after cured but if not painted then a gel coat (slightly different resin make up) should be applied to seal the deal, but a coat of the same resin used throughout the project will give about the same result.
I used a polyester resin on this but there is also epoxy resins which are much stronger (and more $) and either are compatible with the fiberglass cloth and mats. One of my irons in the fire is antique restoration and I have used the polyester and epoxy resins injected into deteriorated/rotted wood to stabilize it, similar to the method used in log home restorations.

Probably the most important aspect of fabricating anything, in my opinion, is drawing the project to scale on paper (ordinary graph paper works fine) before starting as this will give an accurate view of how the item will actually look.

Fiberglass can be drilled, tapped, ground down, inserts mounted into it, pretty much the same as wood. Reinforced backing plates, ect. should be layed up right into it if you know where something is going to be mounted.

Good Luck on the project, I look forward to seeing pictures!

Al

 

[Kilo19]

Hi Kilo19, I used 1/2 inch exterior plywood, B/C grade (which basically means sanded slightly with no voids showing such as found on CDX sheathing grade).
There is a marine grade plywood that is treated similar to pressure treated lumber but I was not sure of the adhesion qualities with the resin. Regular wood soaks up some of the resin into the outer layers, more or less becomes one after its cured. Polyester or epoxy are both waterproof after cured but if not painted then a gel coat (slightly different resin make up) should be applied to seal the deal, but a coat of the same resin used throughout the project will give about the same result.
I used a polyester resin on this but there is also epoxy resins which are much stronger (and more $) and either are compatible with the fiberglass cloth and mats. One of my irons in the fire is antique restoration and I have used the polyester and epoxy resins injected into deteriorated/rotted wood to stabilize it, similar to the method used in log home restorations.

Probably the most important aspect of fabricating anything, in my opinion, is drawing the project to scale on paper (ordinary graph paper works fine) before starting as this will give an accurate view of how the item will actually look.

Fiberglass can be drilled, tapped, ground down, inserts mounted into it, pretty much the same as wood. Reinforced backing plates, ect. should be layed up right into it if you know where something is going to be mounted.

Good Luck on the project, I look forward to seeing pictures!

Al

thanks, im gonna be a few months out on building it, but im thinking of using cardboard, and just build a template (take my time) and then use the cardboard to cut the wood from, that way i know it'll fit, and can see any issues (hopefully) during that design phase.

now on the brackets, im thinking of putting a roof rack on it (it'll be removable) how would you attached the brackets to the top of the hardtop? ive heard of threaded inlays? (correct me if i said that worng), but there inlaid in the fiberglass and then the bolts for the brackets are threaded, its woven in the fiberglass so to speak and no chance of leaking. i am prepared, and know that bracing is gonna be needed, therego its gonna be a long process, but i feel cheaper then buying new, cuz i get to make it myself, save of labor, but learn the process as well.

 

[rr41mag]

This is undoubtedly the most interesting build I have ever seen. Great work is an understatement.

 

[mtnwhlr]

This is undoubtedly the most interesting build I have ever seen. Great work is an understatement.